Luciano Tarricone

Safe, Sustainable and Low-cost Electromagnetic

Technologies for the Internet of Things

Full Professor, University of Salento, Italy.

ABSTRACT: Research and industrial activities related to the Internet of Things (IoT) are growing up faster and faster, and the related enabling technologies play nowadays a very important role. Most of these technologies are electromagnetic (EM). In this talk, we focus on some of the most important EM enabling technologies for the IoT and smart systems, discussing more specifically about 1) energy autonomy 2) identification 3) sustainability in terms of costs and safety related to human exposure to EM fields.

In the area of energy autonomy, two important issues are i) the design of systems and devices for Wireless Power Transmission (WPT) and ii) EM energy harvesting. The discussed research activities are related both to the design of low-power long-range links based on the use of rectennas (rectifying antennas) and to the design of high-power mid/low-range links based on the use of magnetically coupled resonant systems. A particular attention will be dedicated to the design of WPT links for wearable and implantable devices, especially in biomedical applications. As per WPT for wearable and portable devices, the focus is on the design of devices and systems fabricated by using non-conventional materials (conductive fabrics, textile materials, etc.). Further activities are related to the theoretical analysis of resonant energy links implemented by using either a capacitive or an inductive coupling. Useful design formulas will be proposed for links using multiple transmitters and/or multiple receivers and for multi-hop links.

As for identification, the reference enabling technology is of course RadioFrequency Identification (RFID). Design, prototyping and characterization of innovative tag and reader devices is addressed in a variety of applications. A dedicated attention is paid to the integration between RFID systems and sensors and, more in general, to the design of fully passive tags with augmented capabilities, such as sensing, reasoning, and alerting, capable to render “smart” the objects they are applied to. Some new and appealing perspectives opened by textile chipless tags will also be discussed.

As for the sustainability in terms of costs, safety and environmental issues, the proposed solutions are extremely effective. More specifically, for sustainability in terms of safety related to human exposure to EM fields, specific research is performed, and will be discussed in the talk, ranging from the use of microdosimetric bioelectromagnetic models at cell membrane levels (and even smaller scales), to the use of dosimetric numerical models (usually based on Finite-Difference Time-Domain -FDTD- methods) so to attack and solve the complex and critical issue of human interactions with EM fields generated by wireless systems.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY: Luciano Tarricone is a Full Professor of Electromagnetic (EM) Fields at the Department of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento in Lecce, Italy. He received a Master Degree in Electronic Engineering at the University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy, in 1989, and his PhD from the same university in 1994. He was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health in Rome (1990), and with IBM Research (1990-94). He was a researcher of EM Fields at the University of Perugia, and a Professor of EM Compatibility at the same university (1994-2001). In 2001 he moved to the University of Salento in Lecce, where he now coordinates the EM research group and laboratory.

His research areas: bioEM, numerical methods for EM, wireless power transmission, EM energy harvesting, RFID. In particular, Prof. Tarricone is active in the area of EM enabling technologies for the Internet of Things and smart systems.

Prof. Tarricone is a reviewer for the most important international journals in EM fields and an associate editor for three international journals. He is a member of many TPCs of international conferences, and was the TPC General Chair for the European Microwave Week 2014, and the General Chair for the Mediterranean Microwave Symposium 2015. He is a reviewer for the European Union in the Framework Programs, as well as for MIUR in CIVR, PON, and other initiatives. He is Chapter Chair for the MTT-APS Joint Italian Chapter of IEEE. He is the Italian representative in the European Microwave Association General Assembly. He is a member of the MTTS TC10, 24 and 26.

He has authored/edited 5 books, more than 160 papers in international journals, and 350 papers in international conferences.

In 1984 Prof. Tarricone was awarded as “Alfiere del Lavoro” by the President of Italian Republic (Presidente della Repubblica) Sandro Pertini.